Toughness. Grittiness. Oregon Strong. Those are some of the words that describe Oregon great and NFL Hall of Famer Dave Wilcox. From Willow Creek, Oregon, Wilcox came from a family of athletes that realized early on that football was going to be their way to college. For Wilcox, who brought his rural, winning mentality to Eugene and helped the Ducks to their first bowl game in 47 years at the 1963 Sun Bowl, the recipe for his success started early in his career. Preparation and a will to win. Although the game of football today is physical by nature, some say that the game back when Wilcox played was built on fear. And intimidation. And no one personified that role more than Wilcox, who actually earned the nickname, The Intimidator. Wilcox doesn’t know exactly where it came from, but he has an idea of the reasoning behind it.

This is the first of two episodes with longtime Voice of the Ducks Jerry Allen and Dave Wilcox.

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Junior running back Travis Dye comes from a very athletic family, with football being the sport of excellence for the family. But it wasn’t always that way. And when football became the go-to sport for the family, a lightly recruited Travis decided to come to Oregon to play with his brother Troy, who was a Duck star in his own right. He excelled early in Eugene, mainly due to his desire to live in his own light and not his brother’s shadow. His excellence has continued, and in 2020, he led the team in rushing and was the only player in the Pac-12 to record at least 400 yards rushing and 200 yards receiving. Dye’s time at Oregon has enabled him to gather wisdom beyond his years and a mentality that allows him to be free and clear on the football field to achieve things he didn’t think he could accomplish.

This week’s episode of the Mighty Oregon Podcast presented by the Oregon Community Credit Union is another special edition with guest host Verone McKinley III.

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Johnny Johnson III is not the biggest Duck on the field. Or the fastest. But his drive to be a contributing cog in the Ducks football machine cannot be questioned. Johnson III came to Eugene as an unheralded recruit from Arizona, where he came from a big family and fell in love with the game of football. Playing time came early, and he immediately made an impact with the Ducks when he arrived on campus. But in his second year, Johnson III struggled, and he learned quickly that preparation is the key to success. How has he used that disappointment to become one of the Duck’s more reliable receivers and a true difference-maker for the program? 

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When you think of the term, “American Dream”, former Duck cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu and his family’s life in America fit the bill. His parents emigrated from Nigeria and gave him and his siblings a life that he continues to be thankful for. Ekpre-Olomu excelled early in sports, and his mentality and drive led him to Eugene, where he quickly became a defensive mainstay for some of Oregon’s most talented teams. But just when his football star was shining brightest, darkness came in the form of a devastating knee injury before the Ducks’ Rose Bowl appearance in 2015. And although he was drafted in the NFL and participated in training camps, he never saw the field again in a competitive game. Leaving the game he loved as a player caused him to do some soul searching, but Ekpre-Olomu knows he has a lot to be thankful for. His family. A prolific college career and an Oregon degree. The love of Oregon fans. And the love for the game of football, which taught him so many valuable life lessons that he continues to use today.

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This week in a special episode of the Mighty Oregon Podcast presented by the Oregon Community Credit Union features starting safety Verone McKinley III interviewing starting quarterback Anthony Brown, who examines his exceptional, and sometimes devastating, experiences in college football and how he is using those experiences to help lead the Ducks in 2021.

Brown began his career at Boston College, where he became the first freshman to ever start a season opener for the Eagles, and he led the team to some big wins and bowl seasons. But in a horrible twist of fate, Brown had devastating injuries to both knees during his time with the Eagles, and despite the hardships, his positive mindset never changed. Brown and his experiences across college football are now in Eugene, where he is showing leadership up and down the Oregon sideline. He is making sure his Duck teammates are prepared for whatever may lie ahead in 2021.

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Mike Bellotti was never afraid to seek out better ways of doing things. And although he ran his offense for 30 years, midway through his time as a coach with the Ducks, he knew something had to change. And after some research and the idea that he can always be better, Bellotti convinced his offensive staff to make that change. The Ducks offense took off, and Bellotti’s newfound offensive scheme was here to stay. Bellotti took the Ducks to new levels of prosperity and notoriety during his time in Eugene. There was a lot of success, and after 35 years of coaching, what are his main takeaways on how he accomplished big goals and transformed Oregon football into a national brand?

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The winds of change began blowing with Oregon football in the ’90s. Iconic new uniforms. Upgraded, functional facilities. And winning football at a historic level. Mike Bellotti helped steer the Ducks onto the national stage and watched the Oregon brand go from a regional identity to sweeping the nation and world by storm with innovation and a futuristic look. It helped that Bellotti was also putting a winning product on the field. Double-digit win seasons. Conference championships. Heisman Trophy candidates. But more important than anything was the mindset change of the program. Gone were the goals of just going to bowl games or competing for a conference title. The Ducks now wanted to make their mark across the entire college football landscape.

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If there’s anyone who had a front-row seat to the emergence of Oregon Football, look no further than former head coach Mike Bellotti. At face value, Bellotti’s Division-two resume did not look like the one that would lead the Ducks to the talk of college football. For him, it was all about doing the best he could, one day at a time. The Ducks found Bellotti, and under head coach Rich Brooks, Oregon football became a force. And when Brooks took off to the NFL, Bellotti brought the Ducks to even bigger heights and became the winningest coach in the history of Oregon football. But the turnaround wasn’t easy. He had to change the narrative around the program because, for many years, the word was not good.     

This is the first of a three-part series into the story of Oregon’s winningest football coach, Mike Bellotti, and the emergence of Oregon football told through the eyes of the man who led the program to their first four ten-win seasons in school history and a total of 12 bowl games, three more than Oregon had attended in their entire history before his time in Eugene.

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If we played a word association game when it comes to Oregon Football, there are plenty that comes to mind. But these two may be the words that get spoken the most: Marcus Mariota. Mariota’s foundation for his success in football came from his hard-working parents in Hawaii, who taught him and his brother to be competitive, but compassionate at the same time. After a unique recruiting process, Mariota found Oregon, where his skills were a perfect match for the Ducks’ innovative offense. The program excelled and became the talk of the college football world, with Mariota commanding the controls. Oregon played for a national championship. Mariota won the Heisman Trophy and was taken second overall by the Tennessee Titans in the 2015 NFL Draft. And although he found success at the NFL level, injuries and a coaching carousel with the Titans brought the game of football, his love of the game, and his future, into focus.  

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Is becoming only the third man in the history of the world to win back-to-back Olympic decathlon gold medals as easy as treating everything like a video game and leveling up? Or is at simple as just imitating what you see on television? For Duck track legend Ashton Eaton, it may just be. Eaton’s journey to greatness is an unlikely one. The only child of a single mom, Eaton, who grew up in LaPine, Oregon, had limited scholarship offers out of high school. That is until he was convinced to try a track event called the decathlon by his high school coaches. It was a conversation that would change his life. Oregon scholarship in hand, Eaton began his rise to the top of the decathlon world. Five-time NCAA champion. Eight-time All-American. 2012 Olympic Gold medalist. And then the 2016 Olympic Gold medalist. All of it came from a mentality he learned in his childhood playing video games. He just leveled up.

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